As it was explained to me, "Centerfire shooters start with the finest rifle they can afford and then tailor the ammunition to the rifle. Rimfire shooters also start with the finest rifle they can afford. Then they buy the best ammunition they can afford and finally, tailor the rifle to the ammunition."
I could never afford Eley Tenex, RWS R-50 or Lapua Midas, so my best shooting in all of my benchrest rimfire rifles has been with Eley Match and Lapua Center X. When I got into reloading centerfire ammunition, I was surprised to find I could load my own centerfire ammo cheaper than I could buy equivalent quality in rimfire ammunition. Right now I have a centerfire benchrest rifle that shoots sub 1/4" at 100 yards with handloads that cost me about as much as off the shelf Eley Match. That is adding up the cost of the bullets, powder, primers and brass, with the assumption of five reloads per brass case. That does not count the cost of the reloading gear but I shoot so much, while using basic hand operated loading gear that I figure I paid for that a long time ago. Besides, handloading centerfire ammo for accuracy is it's own hobby that gives me something useful to do on rainy days.
This does not mean I am going to sell my rimfire rifles., I still shoot both about equal in round count, but I do not see any cash savings with rimfire as opposed to centerfire.
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On a round per round basis, I don't think that is quite the case, but quantity of CF versus RF makes up the difference. Here is the math:
Bullets: $300/1000 = 0.30/shot
Brass: $0.75 each = 0.10/shot (7 reloads)
Powder: $25/lb, 30 grain = 0.11 shot
Primer: $50/1000 = 0.05 shot
Add that up without barrel life and you get $0.56/shot => $28.00/50 shots.
Barrel life on a PPC is about 2000 rounds max at $400/barrel best case so add 0.20 more
Now you have 0.76/shot => $38/50 shots. That's about 2x to 2.5x rimfire ammo. THE KILLER ON RIMFIRE IS HOW MANY SHOTS ARE MADE THOUGH. In the end, rimfire is much more expensive given the number of shots. I burn at least a box a target so about $75 per day on a 4 card match (lasts about 3 hours too). A centerfire match for one day (all day) is 10 targets at about 10 shots/target => 100 shots or about $56.
That is probably why I have two varmint rifles, one in 204 Ruger and the other in 222 Remington and no rifle in 6 PPC. When Russ Haydon built my BAT action 222 he assured me the Krieger barrel, with that cartridge would give me tens of thousands of rounds, rather than hundreds or merely thousands of rounds before any significant wear would make me want to change barrels. As a result, my cost figures are a bit less than with 6 PPC. I actually expect to die of old age, before I wear out my barrel.
I have 475 of pieces of 222 Rem brass that I bought when Russ Haydon was going out of business and several pounds of H 322 I bought for under $10 a pound in another sale, so my actual costs are quite a bit less than the following figures, which are based on research I did today for current retail prices at such on-line sellers as Champion Shooter Supply and Midway. These figures are based on the real world prices for the standard loads I use with my BAT rifle and my Ruger No. 1V in 222 Rem. I have not yet loaded for my 204 Ruger.
Berger 52 Grain FB Bullets @ $0.26 per round.
22.2 gr. of H 322 @ $.07 per round
Lapua Brass @ .05 per round
Rem 7 1/2 Primers @ .02 ea
That gives an estimated cost of $0.40 per round. Now all of those costs are retail, with the highest quality of off the shelf components. If I was to substitute lesser components, the cost drops quite a bit.
With my 204 Ruger, I bought 150 rounds of commercially loaded Fiocchi 34 gr. V-max. @ $0.75 a round. Once I shoot up that factory ammunition, I will have 150 pieces of reusable brass essentially for free. I assume I will get about 500 reloads before I will need any more 204 Ruger brass.
To give a fair comparison, you need to buy top quality rimfire varmint or competition ammunition such as Remington Premier Magnum Rimfire (HMR) 17 Grain Hornady V-Max, which is currently at $0.41 - $0.45 a round at Midway. Or you could compare it to Eley Tenex @ $0.40 a round or (at least) Eley Match @ 0.32 per round at Champion Shooter Supply.
But none of those rimfire rounds will give the sub 1/4" 100 yard five shot groups, I regularly get with my 222 Rem. hand loads. I am still working with that rifle to achieve 5-shot groups under .2". I am pretty close now at .211"
So to summarize: Though loading and shooting my BAT rifle with high quality components costs me about the same per round as firing rimfire rifles with similarly high quality components, the results with centerfire are in another universe from rimfire.
I confess to being a high volume shooter with rimfire and centerfire, though as you said there is a difference. A typical day at the range for me is 20-50 rounds of centerfire. while a day with rimfire is 100-200 rounds.
PS: Buying locally at Sportco a couple of years ago, I bought a few boxes of Federal Premium Gold Medal Match Rimfire Ammunition 922A to try it out. I was not paying attention to the price, as I checked out with that and a few other items. I got home and found I had paid the astounding price of over $20 a box. Perhaps that is why I currently buy all of my rimfire ammunition on-line,
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The performance comparisons between RF and CF are an excercise in apples and oranges. Try and remember the modern .22 is still anchored firmly in the mid 19th century, it is a historical legacy. Try shooting your deuce with a pure lead waxed lubed slug with about 90% less powder for an eye opener.
That would not be a good idea unless I want to blow up my rifle. Many centerfire shooters still use cast bullets to great effect. My belief is that the manufacturers of rimfire ammunition have gone way overboard in pricing, especially the competition quality stuff. I still have quite a bit of $2.00 a box plinking ammo in my ammo closet. It is not as old as you might expect.
I did try loading my Ruger 1V in 220 Swift with 13.5 grains of IMR 4759 and some very cheap pulled surplus 55 gr. bullets. The result was about 2,000 fps, no serious recoil and 100 yard 5-shot groups at 1" compared to 1/2" groups with my usual more expensive loads in that same rifle. I think I calculated the cost at $0.27 a round.
Rimfire Ammo Length
G'day all.
I often wondered why I had the occasional 'flyer' from my ancient (1971) Annie 54 so I made a gauge to measure the ammo length (just like when reloading for C/F target ammo).
Very interesting results. Even with 'top shelf' Eley Tenex (which the Annie likes) it soon became obvious that the longer (+.002in) cartridges shot higher than the shorter (-.002in) variants. Thankfully only a few rounds in each batch deviated from the average length. This is the gauge:
* Doghunter *
G'day all.
I often wondered why I had the occasional 'flyer' from my ancient (1971) Annie 54 so I made a gauge to measure the ammo length (just like when reloading for C/F target ammo).
Very interesting results. Even with 'top shelf' Eley Tenex (which the Annie likes) it soon became obvious that the longer (+.002in) cartridges shot higher than the shorter (-.002in) variants. Thankfully only a few rounds in each batch deviated from the average length. This is the gauge:
* Doghunter *
Attachments
No rimfire ammunition will ever be made to the tolerances that a centerfire hand loader can get. There is also no option to change bullet depth or powder charge to account for humidity, temperature and barometric pressure, like a centerfire hand loader can do at the range. I have a standard bullet, powder charge, and bullet depth for my 222 Rem. BAT. The powder is measured in tenths of grains. The bullet depth in ten thousandths of inches. All of my brass is trimmed, neck sized, weighed, etc. to be as identical as I can make it. Someday, I hope to have enough experience and recorded data to know how to adjust for different weather conditions, as I see experienced shooters on the line do. So far, I am just guessing. Who knows, I also may even eventually learn to read wind flags.
All the rimfire shooter has is the ammunition as it came from the factory, a barrel tuner and action screw tension adjustments to work with. Sometimes when I am shooting rimfire, I feel like I have one hand tied behind my back. If I was not having so much fun, I might just stop. I no longer have either of my Annies, just an old Martini MK II and a CZ. They still challenge me to shoot them within their inherent levels of accuracy. They also allow me to avoid the expense of Tenex as Eley Match, Lapua Center X and Norma Match 22 already function fine at my skill levels.
